I just read in this week’s issue of The New Yorker that Aaron Sorkin, creator of Sports Night and my current favorite show The West Wing, is coming back to NBC. Sorkin, who left The West Wing in 2003 after a dispute with the network, will have a new drama on NBC’s fall schedule: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The premise: a creative team is hired to save a live sketch-comedy show that just happens to resemble NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Tina Fey, co-head writer for SNL, is working on a similar project starring her and Alec Baldwin, but I give Studio 60 better odds of sticking. There will be a lot of people in mourning when The West Wing finishes its run (as of this writing, only three more episodes are remaining), and it would help NBC to have another smart, funny, character-driven drama in the wings. Plus, Studio 60 has attracted a number of good actors, including Sorkin regulars Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield, as well as Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Steven Weber and Judd Hirsch.
Leave a Reply